


You and Me Both

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Baby Steven, Gen, Moving On, Really it's just awkward tension, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 12:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3768412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl finds she has at least something in common with Rose's newborn baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You and Me Both

She stood, motionless, with a crying baby in her arms.

She didn’t  _know_  what to do. For the first time, she didn’t have an answer. She stared down at the bundle in her arms, gnawing at her lip, thinking. Maybe if she stayed quiet, he would settle down as well. Maybe if she sat motionless, he would grow tired of crying. Legs crossed over the couch, holding him in her lap, she waited. But he didn’t. He continued to bawl and scream and kick her; she almost felt hurt that he would act in such a way around her—considering who he was and how special he was. A mess of brown hair, tear-stained pink cloth, and snot—oh that was horribly _disgusting—eugh_ , Pearl thought to herself, grabbing a tissue from the counter and wiping his small nose.

But if she knew  _anything_  about human infants, it was that they were hardly functioning humans. Their brains hadn’t even fully developed, lacking many of the social and physical functions a human needed to survive. Walking, talking, eating… all they really  _knew_  how to do was sleep, and she struggled to coerce him to do even something so simple. Pearl questioned their parenting abilities; why would humans give birth if their young couldn’t function in society within a few years? Almost to prove her point, his father had handed him to her without a second thought—as though she knew how to properly care for a child—just watch him for a second will you? I’ll be right back.

It had been an hour (Pearl couldn’t understand why humans exaggerate one second as an entire hour), and he still hadn’t stopped crying. Amethyst and Garnet had come to check out the commotion. The house was nearly constructed, but a few board pieces lying around still tripped the Gems from time to time, and Amethyst  _almost_  fell right on top of the baby. It was then that Pearl realized just how fragile babies were—if she had fallen on him, he would’ve died. Right then and there, and she wouldn’t have been able to stop it. She wouldn’t have been able to save him. She held the crying baby in her arms, holding him out of reach of the wild child, and scolding her viciously.

Amethyst’s eyes widened—then her brows furrowed into a scowl, and she stomped off into her room. Garnet stood and stared, before declaring she had a mission, and warped out.

Thus leaving Pearl alone, in a half-built rickety shack, with a crying baby who happened to possess the rose quartz gem.

She set him on the couch—surrounded by pillows, so he couldn’t crawl off and fall two feet to his death—and scrambled to the bag Greg had left her with. In it contained a bottle; he had briefly showed her how to feed him before running off, and the formula seemed warm. Was it supposed to be warm? Pearl could feel herself panicking, and slowly breathed (Gems didn’t  _need_  breath, but she read breathing exercise help calm the nerves), in and out. In and out. Okay.  She could do this.

Sitting on the couch and removing the pillow prison, Pearl brought him into her arms one last time and lowered the bottle to his mouth. Surely he would just start drinking, right? He struggled for a moment, pushing the bottle away with his tiny, tiny hands, before finally—ugh, this child was stubborn—finally bringing the nipple to his lips and suckling.

The crying finally stopped.

She had hardly any idea such a small child could be so difficult to manage; when he was in Greg’s arms, the baby seemed happy and jubilant, and Greg even more-so. With him in her own arms, he seemed stressed. Nothing at all like the Rose Quartz she knew, whose smile so was so radiant it could bloom flowers. She shuddered, blinking tears away, and looked down at the baby with a frown.

_You and me both._

The ocean outside masked a stormy night: the waves rolled on the shore and gently caressed the horizon’s night sky, and the hours had whisked away almost seamlessly with little more to tell the time than the sunset. One hemisphere of the sky was painted a royal purple, and the other a vibrant teal. Between them was a graceful pink.

Pearl was sure she had somehow grown stress lines on her brows when she finally handed Steven—fully asleep—back to Greg, who stood at the door with a nervous and embarrassed smile.

“Uh, hey. Thanks for looking over Steven while I was gone. I hope he didn’t give you too much trouble…” He laughed nervously.

Pearl’s gaze wandered back to Steven as he said his name, and she saw Rose in him for just the smallest moment. But also something more. She smiled.

Oh, no. No, not at all. He’s never a bother.

She said so with a crooked smile, a few stray hairs, and a dried tear line running down her cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> My personal take on "how the gems would react to baby Steven." I'm fairly certain (99%) that Steven grew up with Greg. Greg probably introduced the Gems to Steven bit-by-bit, and I wondered if he had ever dropped Steven with them to babysit, since I'm not sure he'd have enough money for a babysitter. And I figured since he dropped Steven on them so suddenly, they (Pearl) would have a hard time adjusting; one year really isn't a whole lot of time for the Gems to get over their loss of Rose, so I thought it would be good to show some of the tensions they still have. Yeah.


End file.
